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· An
Alabama man agreed to plead guilty to charges and was ordered to pay
restitution December 29 for his role in a Ponzi scheme that caused about 12
investors to lose about $3.1 million. – U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern
District of Alabama See item 2 below in
the Financial Services Sector

· The Utah
Highway Patrol reported that heavy snow December 29 caused more than 225
crashes across Salt Lake, Utah, and Davis counties, including a 20-vehicle
crash that closed Interstate 80 and Route 36 for several hours. – Salt Lake
City Deseret News

3. December
30, Salt Lake City Deseret News – (Utah) 20-car crash halts
traffic between Tooele, Salt Lake counties. A weather-related crash
involving about 20 cars closed of a 2-mile stretch of Interstate 80 between
Salt Lake and Tooele counties and a portion of Route 36 from Tooele to
Interstate 80 for several hours December 29. The Utah Highway Patrol reported
that a bout of lake effect snow in the region caused more than 225 crashes
across Salt Lake, Utah, and Davis counties. Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865618627/20-car-crash-halts-traffic-between-Tooele-Salt-Lake-counties.html

· At least
4 workers were rescued from a collapsed building at the Langdale Forest
Products facility near Valdosta, Georgia, December 29 after a wind storm caused
2 structure collapses and damaged other buildings. –Augusta Chronicle;
Associated Press

6. December
30, Augusta Chronicle; Associated Press – (Georgia) South Ga.
building collapse traps 4. At least 4 workers were rescued from a collapsed
building that housed timber products at the Langdale Forest Products facility
near Valdosta December 29 after a wind storm caused 2 structure collapses and
damaged other buildings. Five employees were transported to an area hospital
for evaluation and treatment. Source: http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2014-12-30/south-ga-building-collapses-traps-4

· CSC, an
IT services company, agreed to pay $190 million to settle U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission claims that the company violated U.S. laws related to the
company’s accounting irregularities in Australia, Denmark, and its contractual
relationship with the U.K. National Health Service. – IDG News Service See item 16 below in the Information Technology Sector

Financial Services Sector

2. December
29, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama – (Alabama)
U.S. Attorney charges Hoover man for role in Ponzi scheme that bilked
millions from investors. A Hoover, Alabama man agreed to plead guilty to
charges and was ordered to pay restitution December 29 for his role in a Ponzi
scheme that caused about 12 investors to lose approximately $3.1 million when
his investment scheme collapsed in May. The registered financial broker led
some investors to believe his company, 360 Properties, was affiliated with
MetLife and used the funds for personal use. Source: http://www.fbi.gov/birmingham/press-releases/2014/u.s.-attorney-charges-hoover-man-for-role-in-ponzi-scheme-that-bilked-millions-from-investors

Information Technology Sector

15. December 30, Securityweek – (International) Researchers
find 64-bit version of Havex RAT. Researchers with Trend Micro found a
64-bit version of the remote access Trojan (RAT), Havex, which has been used in
campaigns targeting industrial control systems (ICS). Two Windows 7 infections
were discovered utilizing the 64-bit version of the threat. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/researchers-find-64-bit-version-havex-rat

16. December 30, IDG News Service – (International)
CSC pays 190M to settle 4-year-old accounting fraud case with SEC. CSC,
an IT services company, agreed to pay $190 million to settle a case by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission that claims the company violated U.S.
antifraud, reporting, and books-and-records laws related to the company’s
accounting irregularities in Australia, Denmark, and its contractual
relationship with the U.K. National Health Service over the failed National
Program for IT. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2864013/csc-pays-190m-to-settle-4yearold-accounting-fraud-case-with-sec.html

· A rock
slide December 27 in Minturn, Colorado, blocked Highway 24 with large boulders
and prompted the road to close indefinitely while crews cleared the debris and
inspected the hillside for stability. – KCNC 4 Denver

·The
Alaska Department of Epidemiology reported December 24 that at least 25
individuals in Bristol Bay communities were sickened in an ongoing botulism
outbreak linked to a batch of seal oil produced in the village of Twin Hills
that tested positive for the botulinum toxin. – KDLG 670 AM/89.9 FM
Dillingham

16. December 24, KDLG 670
AM/89.9 FM Dillingham –
(Alaska) Botulism outbreak, batch of Twin Hills seal oil to blame. The
Alaska Department of Epidemiology reported December 24 that at least 25
individuals in Bristol Bay communities were sickened in an ongoing botulism
outbreak linked to a batch of seal oil produced in the village of Twin Hills
that tested positive at the highest measurable level for botulinum toxin.
Source: http://kdlg.org/post/botulism-outbreak-batch-twin-hills-seal-oil-blame

·A
boil water advisory was issued December 25 through December 27 for at least
27,500 Casselberry, Florida residents following a water treatment system
malfunction. – WESH 2 Daytona Beach

19. December 25, WESH 2 Daytona
Beach – (Florida) Boil
water notice affects at least 27,500 Casselberry residents. A boil water
advisory was issued December 25 for at least 27,500 Casselberry, Florida
residents following a water treatment system malfunction that prevented the
city from maintaining the minimum required chlorine residual. The boil water
advisory was expected to be in effect through December 27. Source: http://www.wesh.com/news/boil-water-notice-affects-at-least-27500-casselberry-residents/30397646

·A
fire at the Wedgwood Senior Apartments complex in Castle Hills, Texas, December
28 killed 5 residents, injured more than a dozen others, and prompted the
evacuation of 350 individuals. – Associated Press

5. December
29, Wall Street Journal – (New Jersey) Pershing LLC fined $3
million for reserve level, supervisory failures. The Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority fined Pershing LLC, a unit of the Bank of New York Mellon
Corp., $3 million December 29 for failing to maintain certain reserve levels
and for supervisory failures after regulators discovered the company violated
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s customer protection rule. The company
had reserve deficiencies ranging from $4 million to $220 million from November 2010
to August 2011 and put securities to risk by failing to maintain physical
possession of some fully paid and margin securities. Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/pershing-llc-fined-3-million-for-reserve-level-supervisory-failures-1419866070

6. December
26, Bloomberg News; Chicago Tribune – (International) Credit
Suisse must face $10 billion N.Y. mortgage-fraud lawsuit. Zurich-based
Credit Suisse Group was ordered by a New York State Supreme Court justice to
face a $10 billion lawsuit initiated by the State’s attorney general December
24 accusing the bank of fraud in the sales of mortgage-backed securities before
the 2008 financial crisis. Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-credit-suisse26-20141226-story.html

25. December
28, IDG News Service – (International) Sony: PlayStation Network is back online now,
really. Sony reported that its PlayStation Network was fully restored
December 28 following a December 25 distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack
that knocked the network offline. The Lizard Squad hacker group allegedly
claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack which also took down Microsoft’s
Xbox Live through December 26, and the group claimed that the Tor network was
its next target for a zero-day attack. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2863814/sony-playstation-network-is-back-online-now-really.html

26. December
27, Softpedia – (International) Exploit for Android same origin policy flaw
is leveraged against Facebook users. Researchers with Trend Micro,
Facebook, and BlackBerry are working to detect and resolve an attack targeting
Facebook users using a campaign relying on a Blackberry app to steal access
tokens which uses the same origin policy (SOP) exploit flaw in the Web browser
of the Android OS lower than 4.4. The attackers rely on the vulnerability to
serve a malicious JavaScript file to victims which is stored in a cloud storage
account. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Exploit-for-Android-Same-Origin-Policy-Is-Leveraged-Against-Facebook-Users-468351.shtml

27. December
27, Softpedia – (International) Internet Systems Consortium website has been
compromised to serve malware. The Web site of Internet Systems Consortium,
which maintains BIND and relies on WordPress, was taken offline after the site
was hacked with a malicious code. Administrators urged users to check their
computers while they investigated the apparent issue with the content
management system (CMS) after visitors were redirected to a malicious location
hosting Angler Exploit Kit (EK). Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Internet-Systems-Consortium-Website-Has-Been-Compromised-to-Serve-Malware-468365.shtml

Links

About Me

U.S. Army Retired Chief Warrant Officer with more than 40 years in information technology and 35 years in information security. Became a Certified Information Systems Security Professional in 1995 and have taught computer security in Asia, Canada and the United States. Wrote a computer security column for 5 years in the 1980s titled "for the Sake Of Security", penname R. E. (Bob) Johnston, which was published in Computer Decisions.
Motto: "When entrusted to process, you are obligated to safeguard"